Orhan Pamuk Acceptance Speech: Frankfurt Bookfair 2005

It is a great pleasure to be in Frankfurt, the city where Ka, the hero of my novel, Snow, spent the last fifteen years of his life. My hero is a Turk and therefore no relation of Kafka’s; they are related only in the literary sense of the word. I shall be saying more about literary relations later on.

Ka’s real name was Kerim Alaku but he was not very fond of it, so he preferred the shorter version. He first came to Frankfurt in the 1980s as a political refugee. He was not particularly interested in politics - he didn’t even like politics: his whole life is poetry. My hero was a poet living in Frankfurt. He saw Turkish politics as someone else might see an accident – something that he got mixed up in without ever willing it. I would, if I have enough time, like to say a few words about politics and accidents. It is a subject about which I have thought a great deal. But do not worry: though I write long novels, today I shall keep my comments brief.